Hello, my name is Rebecca O’Neill, but the students call me Ms. Becky and I will be serving as a volunteer at the Calabasas. I recently moved to California as a member of the community service organization called AmeriCorp. I moved from Vermont in the northeast after graduating from Bates College with a BA in Latin American Studies with a focus on migration.

I have really fallen in love with Watsonville and the sense of community within the school.

During the day I serve as a volunteer in kinder, first, third, and fifth grade classrooms with RTI, which basically means intensive reading instruction to try to help students meet state levels. I also help out wherever there is a gap, subbing for afterschool program, translating parent teacher conferences, or playground games.

It is a pleasure to be here at the school and get to know the kids, staff, and parents, thank you for sharing this year with me.

I love Latin American literature. My favorite books are The House of the Spirits and the Island Under the Sea by Isabel Allende, Love in the Time of Cholera and 100 Years of Solitude by Marques, as well as 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. I wrote my thesis examining the use of female witnesses as a way to retaliate against Central American dictators as expressed through the works of The Feast of the Goat and In the Time of the Butterflies. IT was through Latin American literature that I first discovered my passion for Spanish, and my desire to travel to Central America.

In addition to reading, during my four years at Bates College I was a varsity rower. Now that I am in Watsonville I spend my time exploring the different beaches and beautiful rural streets that go out through the orchards and farms.